Arlington TX Suspends Anti-discrimination Ordinance over LGBTQ Protections

Mayor Jim Ross asked what kind of message they are sending to their children by removing these protections. "I would not be able to live with myself if I didn't vote yes on this ordinance," he said. / WFAA

The Arlington, TX City Council voted not to reinstate LGBTQ protections, and as a result, the city's entire anti-discrimination ordinance remained suspended.

The 5-4 vote gives Arlington the distinction of being the first US city to cave to Trump's demand to strip its citizens of civil rights protections, WFAA previously reported.

The vote bars language in the city’s ordinance passed in 2021 that prevents employers and lodging businesses from discriminating against people for their sexual orientation or gender identity. The council suspended the ordinance in September amid worry that more than $60 million in federal dollars the city planned to use on city services, including public safety, parks, and roads, could be lost if they kept it.

The hate group "Texas Values" lobbied against the inclusion of Sexual orientation and gender identity in the ordinance, arguing it would be in violation of state and federal laws.

Councilmember Rebecca Boxall described the 2021 ordinance as “bad policy,” saying it was a symbolic gesture at best and unenforceable at the city level. She argued existing laws give everyone the same protections.

“We already have the protections under our federal and state laws,” she said.

This is unequivocally false

Many Transgender Texans, myself included, weren't present at that council meeting because we had already left Arlington as the state legislature passed a law that invalidates our licenses. Another measure passed this year, a bathroom bill, makes overnight waits to testify against anti LGBT measures in Austin impossible. 

Another bill is pending that would make it a state felony to present yourself authentically to an employer or law enforcement.

Folk Singer Who Cancelled Kennedy Center Show to Perform Live From Home

Kristy Lee sings "Message from Kate" / Clear Wave Recording Studio

Alabama folk singer Kristy Lee, perhaps in a wake-up call to artists still scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center, announced on Monday that she was canceling her January 14 performance, citing concerns for institutional integrity. In an Instagram post, she said that instead, she would perform live online on Facebook from home on the same day.

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Powerful words from Kristy Lee:"...the legal threats that's being talked about by the Kennedy Center isn't really about contracts or damages it's about control".... "when an institution answers concious with retaliation instead of reflection, that tells you exactly what it's become, that doesn't sit right with me."

Being a new fan of Kristy Lee, I took a deep dive into her music and surfaced tears streaming, with "A message from Kate" I'm not sure who she wrote it for in 2017, but her decision to publish it now is spurred by her desire to live brave. Enjoy.

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Watch the 60 Minutes CECOT Prison Segment Censored by Bari Weiss

Department of Homeland Security Security Kristi Noem toured the prison shortly after the detainees arrived and posed in front of prisoners to thank the Salvadorian government for taking "our terrorists," leading viewers to assume that the men with MS tattoos were the Venezuelans the US had sent to CECOT. They were not.

Though Weiss moved to halt the original planned Sunday broadcast, users of the Canadian Global TV app were reportedly able to see a copy of the segment, and shared it widely online.

Who is Bari Weiss, the anti-trans, queer Trump ally who was recently appointed editor-in-chief at CBS?

 

HHS axes millions in funding to the AAP over Identity-Based Language

A protester at the Senate confirmation hearing for nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Jan. 29, 2025. / USA Today

In a seemingly inexplicable move, the Health and Human Services department has cut millions in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics, citing its use of "identity-based language" as the reason.

The Department of Health and Human Services has terminated seven grants totaling millions of dollars to the American Academy of Pediatrics, including for initiatives on reducing sudden infant deaths, improving adolescent health, preventing fetal alcohol syndrome, and identifying autism early, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

“The sudden withdrawal of these funds will directly impact and potentially harm infants, children, youth, and their families in communities across the United States,” Mark Del Monte, AAP’s chief executive and executive vice president, said in a statement to The Post. The organization is exploring options to push back, he said, including a legal challenge.

What is identity-based language?

Identity-based language refers to using words that center a person's identity, like "autistic person," or "trans person," rather than separating the person from their characteristic, as in "person with autism" (person-first language) or "person with transgender history".

While not everyone prefers identity-based language, it is a powerful tool for self-identification, promoting pride, and asserting that traits like disability, race, sexuality, or gender identity are integral, not deficits, with many communities, especially in the disability rights movement, advocating for identity-first phrasing to challenge norms and claim their experiences.

Bondi tells FBI to put a bounty on Anti-Fascists and Trans Advocates

Bondi during her first press conference as attorney general in February 2025 / Wikipedia

In a memo dated December 5, Attorney General Pam Bondi instructs the FBI to create a “cash reward system” to incentivize providing information against domestic terrorists. However, it also makes it clear that the targets of such domestic terrorist investigations will be “Antifa-aligned extremists,” including those promoting “radical gender ideology,” LGBTQ Nation Reports.

This, quite frankly, has terrified some of the transgender community, and that is what Bondi intended. As much as the Trump administration would like it to be, none of the shooters or the pipe bomber was transgender or antifa.

So what's a fascist puppet to do? Trump is obviously breathing down her neck to produce someone, anyone, to justify his war on the American people. Perhaps she wrote this memo hoping to prod someone living on the edge into doing something unforeseen. Don't take the bait. Keep living authentically, lawfully, and in three years, this will all be a memory.

Texas Trans Bathroom Ban: Ladies' Room Guarded By State Troopers

Photo / Salgu Wissmath for The Texas Tribune

Texas began enforcing its newly enacted Bathroom Bill on Dec 6, by stationing State Police at women's restrooms at the State Capitol. However, no officers were present at the men's rooms, the Texas Tribune reports.

The officers were seen asking some of the women who entered for identification, and letting others pass without presenting IDs. Of those who presented identification, all had female or X indicated as their gender, including women who publicly identified as trans or non-binary, and they too were allowed to enter.

For transgender and nonbinary people, that reprieve is only temporary with the signing of HB229 and SB 1188. These laws require that the sex assigned at birth be recorded on Birth certificates and prohibit courts from ordering gender marker changes as they have done in the past. This enables State AG Ken Paxton's vendetta against trans people, as he has previously sent letters directing the DPS department to discontinue updating gender markers, possibly retroactively changing state IDs that have previously been updated.

Yes, Texas has a list of people who have updated their gender markers.

Texas first tried to pass a bathroom bill in 2017, but that effort failed. I was at the state capitol with educators, police chiefs, and mayors from across the state to protest and testify against it. Eventually, that bill died in special session thanks to moderate Republicans. Governor Abbott has since primaried those republicans and replaced them with politicians who will advance his far-right agenda.

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Anti-LGBTQ Activist Arrested for Kidnaping her Daughter

Anti-LGBTQ Christian activist Tamara "Tammi" Hamby has been charged with orchestrating the kidnapping, zip-tying of her daughter to a tree, and leaving her for dead.

For dead? According to the arrest warrant Hamby was to watch from afar and "rescue" her daughter when she felt she had learned her lesson. She wasn't there during the kidnapping and apparently was not there when her traumatized daughter broke free and ran to a nearby house. So yes, for dead.

Her daughter eventually freed herself, according to CBS, and ran to a nearby home, where the residents called the police.

Hamby told police that she did it to teach her intellectually challenged daughter a lesson after she allegedly talked with someone online. Jeffery Hamby, a Van Buren family physician, told CBS News that he didn't know in advance about his wife's failed "intervention".

In 2022, Tammi Hamby helped remove LGBTQ-themed books and those featuring people of color from her library system because they were offensive to her Christian sensibilities and she wanted to protect children.

Texas AG Ken Paxton sues to stop Muslim housing project in North Texas

by Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune
December 5, 2025

Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday sued the East Plano Islamic Center and its leaders in North Texas for alleged securities fraud after months of fierce scrutiny from GOP officials and commentators over a planned Muslim community.

The East Plano Islamic Center has pitched a residential development, formerly called EPIC City, with more than 1,000 residential units, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school and retail shops outside of Dallas. The project drew numerous state investigations earlier this year — some for unclear reasons — including one from Paxton, who said in March he was looking into potential violations of consumer protection laws.

On Friday, Paxton accused Community Capital Partners — a private group he alleged EPIC founded — of failing to register as a securities dealer and committing securities fraud by misrepresenting the proposed development’s location and its leader’s compensation in relation to the project, according to the suit.

Paxton filed the suit in Collin County, where part of the development is planned, a month and a half after he wrote to the Texas Secu­ri­ties Board about violations his office had uncovered while investigating the development. He asked the board to review those findings and get back to him so that he could sue. 

The development is no longer called EPIC City and is instead called The Meadow. EPIC could not be reached for comment Friday night.

“The leaders behind EPIC City have engaged in a radical plot to destroy hundreds of acres of beautiful Texas land and line their own pockets,” Paxton said in a statement, vowing to stop the development. “I will relentlessly bring the full force of the law against anyone who thinks they can ignore the rules and hurt Texans.”

The legal action is the latest development to bring attention to the community, which has been the recipient of Islamaphic vitriol for months. 

This summer, the U.S. Department of Justice quietly closed a probe into the housing project — saying that the developers had agreed to follow federal fair housing laws.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

Pipe Bomber told FBI that he believed Trump, elections were stolen

Brian Cole / Injustice Department

During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, according to CNN and NBC.

The FBI arrested Brian Cole, 30, on Thursday on charges that he planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.

The FBI and the DOJ have yet to comment.

Did Cole plant the bombs to bring the system down and to avenge Trump? It would be easy to conclude that. However, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro told CBS News that he was an equal opportunity bomber:

“He was disappointed in various aspects of the election, but this guy was an equal opportunity bomber,” Pirro said. “He was disappointed to a great deal in the system. Both sides of the system.”